Choice in the NHS: Hear From Them

13 Oct 2009

Hear From Them
As the debate over healthcare rages in the US, here in the UK the NHS is undergoing major changes – many of them looking worryingly like privatisation. There is a presumption from both the Labour Party and the Conservative Party that more “choice” gives patients a better service. As such the Government has introduced Alternative Providers of Medical Services (APMS), which allows Primary Care Trusts to contract out the services they provide to a variety of health care providers – including private companies. Another change is allowing patients to choose which GP they see instead of the current system where you must attend the surgery nearest your home.

I am in no doubt that the NHS has been vastly improved over the last 12 years. I had my son in the Homerton Hospital in 1991. The doctors and nurses were lovely, but there was no doubt they were under pressure. Under a Labour government the buildings and the facilities at the Homerton have been improved out of all recognition. And it has an excellent record on issues like MRSA. Nationally we now have 89,000 more nurses, 44,000 more doctors and 100 new hospitals. But I am deeply concerned by the current trend towards allowing private companies to make a profit from providing health services. Profit-making companies may well find ways to perform a service more cheaply but the money saved does not get pumped back into the NHS to further improve services. Instead it goes straight into the pockets of the shareholders. And it is important to ask how private companies do things for less money. Very often it involves cutting corners – with staff wages and pensions, with substandard practice buildings or with the standard and variety of services.

Currently two big healthcare centres are planned for Hackney (the new polyclinic health centres) but there is a chance they will be contracted out to private companies. I have written to the Department of Health explaining my concerns over these plans and will be meeting with the Hackney and City Primary Care Trust. In the meantime I would welcome constituents’ views on the matter. I have already received a number of letters against the plans to allow private companies to run the new healthcare centres, but does anyone think otherwise? The argument for using private companies says that introducing competition improves efficiency, does anyone agree?



back ⇢